1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tool and method for mapping an event and more particularly, a tool and method for mapping an event which includes generating a zoomable and pannable view of an event map, and annotating an event map which may include annotating an event map based on a user input either individually or collaboratively and searching the annotated event map.
2. Description of the Related Art
When attending large multi-track events, such as conferences, trade shows or even large sporting events, attendees may be overwhelmed by the many choices available. They may find it hard to navigate the event in a way that best fits their personal interests and goals.
FIG. 1 illustrates a display screen which displays a conference schedule 100 according to a related art method. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the schedule 100 includes a session times 105 along the x-direction, and the topics for discussion 110 in those sessions along the y-direction. The schedule also includes day-of-the-week links 115 on which a user could click in order to change the day being viewed on the schedule 100.
However, such a related art method is inflexible. There is no customization of views, there is no mechanism for preconference planning, and the schedule is disconnected from any social network. In short, the conference schedule provides poor visualization and personalization for the user.
There are several types of calendaring systems currently available. For example, Lotus® Notes, Lotus® Domino and Lotus® Quickr by IBM® provide email, shared calendars, and shared document storage and management, and also provide the ability to integrate word processing applications. There are also known in the related art several Web-based mashup creators (e.g., Web Summary, Marmite, and d.mix) which may allow a user to browse annotated web sites and perform a parametric copy of elements of interest.
There are also known in the related art, smart scheduling systems (e.g., GroupTime and RhaiCAL) and zoomable calendar interfaces (e.g., DateLens and Spiral Calendar) and zoomable interfaces (e.g., Planviewer) for visualizing hierarchical temporal data such as Microsoft® Project plans.
Timeline is another application that allows for visualizing time-based events. Timeline is a DHTML-based AJAX mashup/widget which supports horizontal panning and allows a user to overlay annotations on top of a timeline. There are also other applications which may allow a user to visualize time-oriented data and hierarchical data (e.g., DOI Tree AVI and Polyarchies). There have also been some standards which have been published related to personal information exchange (e.g., vCard) and calendaring and scheduling (e.g., VCalendar and RDF Calendar).
There are also other related art systems and methods which relate to personal information exchange, calendaring and scheduling (e.g., Google Calendar, Trumba® Connect, Achieve Planner, Zimbra™ Calendar, The Calendar Planner, 30Boxes, Calendarhub, diigo, AirSet, Spongecell, HipCal, nTreePoint Events, Cozicentral, iCalShare and Calgoo).
However, none of these related art systems and methods provides a user with a zoomable and pannable view of a customized event map.
In addition, when attending large multi-track events, such as conferences, trade shows or even large sporting events, attendees may be overwhelmed by the many choices available. They may find it hard to navigate the event in a way that best fits their personal interests and goals. However, none of these related art systems and methods may include annotating an event map based on a user input either individually or collaboratively and searching the annotated event map.